Mykl Wells

Title: Lantern Project.

Medium: Cardboard, Paper, L.E.D. Lighting.

Date: 2008-Ongoing

Dimensions: Varries

Description:

In 2007 I was attending the All Souls Procession when I ran into my old Friend Paul Bagley (A wonderful artist and a lot of fun to get into trouble with) and he was carrying a beautiful lantern. It was made of wood and mounted on a dried agave stalk. It made quite an impression on me.

I had been toying with the idea of holding a lantern Making workshop for ASP and inspired by Pauls lantern I set out to design one that could be easily constructed by anyone, but had form and allowed for personalization and variation on the theme. What I came up with was a design for a cardboard lantern that met those criteria. In 2008 I set up a workshop and invited the pblic to come and make lanterns with me. Turn out was good and that year about thirty lanterns marched in the parade with me. I repeted  the workshop in 2009 with about the same results.

In 2010 Sharon Holnback invited me to hold Lantern Making workshops for GLOW. A local High School art class got in on the act and week after week I was making lanterns with students, other artists and the general public. The results were spectacular. We lined the half-mile long driveway that leads to the ranch where GLOW is held with over sixty lanterns. Transforming the mundane into a spectacular feast for the senses. The lanterns had a transformative affect and set the atmosphere for GLOW.

After that success I was doing more lantern making workshops than was really reasonable  for one man. Every of the 36 workshops was free and everyone left with a lantern. Yucca stalks for the poles were collected from a ranch outside of Tucson. The cardboard came from a local solar energy installer, the left over boxes the panels were shipped in. Paper for the windows was bought from the dollar store as was the white glue that held everything together. Participants were asked to provide there own light source and given some suggestions as to what would work. The workshop was held before All Souls Procession and spawned a whole new event in Tucson called Luminights.

I plan to continue to run workshops and expand the scope of the project.